Alberta's watershed pipeline deal with Ottawa wasn't front and centre Friday when Premier Danielle Smith spoke with United Conservative Party faithful at their annual convention. Smith took the stage in Edmonton for the first of many addresses planned for the weekend. It wasn't until after she spoke on issues including rural policing, new federal legislation and even separatism that someone...
Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson travelled to British Columbia Friday for a meeting with Premier David Eby, who continued to express frustration over his province’s exclusion from negotiations for the landmark deal Ottawa signed with Alberta. The political fallout from the memorandum of understanding signed Thursday also continued internally for Liberals after the sudden resignation from cabinet of long-time environmentalist...
This is a love story. In May, Ontario Premier Doug Ford implored his ally, Prime Minister Mark Carney, to show the west “some love.”
Twelve hundred people were on their feet in Calgary yesterday applauding Mark Carney and Danielle Smith for the deal they signed that could lead to a new pipeline to move Alberta oil to markets. But there was a cost too ...Carney lost a minister, and the BC government and indigenous groups are more than a little bit upset. What happens...
Montreal debate meant to be bilingual, but most read prepared statements. When a reporter asked him in French how he would evaluate his performance in Thursday's French-language NDP leadership debate, candidate Rob Ashton paused and shook his head. “I’m sorry. En anglais?” he replied. He didn’t understand the question. Fellow hopeful Tanille Johnston was asked the same thing, this time...
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith were all smiles as they put their signatures to an energy co-operation agreement that specifies the conditions that must be met for a new bitumen pipeline to the Pacific to be approved under the federal major projects law.
Recently, the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, has said he doesn’t understand why Canadians are angry about comments regarding this country becoming a part of the United States. He has also stated publicly that when President Trump calls upon Canada to become the 51st American state, that it is a compliment and a term of endearment.
Premier Danielle Smith isn't personally challenged at this UCP convention, but still faces blowback from separatists and recall campaigns. Every United Conservative Party annual convention is odd in its own way, but this one is truly special. Article content Premier Danielle Smith faces pressure from separatists at the gathering in Edmonton this weekend. Recall campaigns are also a challenge for...
The CBC story landed with a thump on Monday afternoon: Prime Minister Mark Carney’s memorandum of understanding with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, it suggested, would include a carve-out for her province on clean electricity regulations. Canadian Identity and Culture Minister Steven Guilbeault was stunned.
Following the historic signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Ottawa and Alberta to lay the groundwork for a new oil pipeline — and the resignation of longtime cabinet minister Steven Guilbeault over the issue — Environment and Climate and Change Minister Julie Dabrusin insists the federal government is not rolling back its climate policy. On Thursday, Prime Minister...
This week the Pentagon issued secret contracts to American weapons-makers to build the first generation of space weapons. The contracts have not yet been publicly announced, however sources told Reuters that the list includes Lockheed Martin and Northup Grumman – two of the biggest defence companies in the world.
Let’s face it, with 343 MPs in this Parliament and one Green Party seat, I had not imagined that any vote might be so tight that my single “yay” or “nay” could hold sway. Then, based on a combination of minority math and political machination, the knife-edge vote on Mark Carney’s first budget on November 17th came along and the...
Basking in the glow of new-found friendship between Ottawa and Alberta, Premier Danielle Smith declared that this day would never have arrived if Justin Trudeau was still prime minister. “I can tell you 100 per cent that the former prime minister would never have moved this far on these issues,” Smith said, after she and Mark Carney unveiled a whole...
Former environment minister Steven Guilbeault has resigned from cabinet over the Carney government's memorandum of understanding with Alberta that sets a path for an oil pipeline to B.C.'s coast. The Power & Politics panel of party insiders discusses the politics around the deal and possible risks to Liberal seats.
Every so often a Canadian politician comes along and decides he or she is ready to challenge the orthodoxy. In the 1950s and 1960s, it was Saskatchewan Premier Tommy Douglas, who insisted that universal, publicly funded medical care was possible in Canada, despite strong opposition from health care providers, which culminated in a doctors’ strike.
I am starting to wonder if Mark Carney knows what he is doing. On Thursday, he met with Premier Danielle Smith in Calgary to sign a new agreement with Alberta, which includes federal support for a bitumen pipeline to northern British Columbia. On the surface, this is splendid news. It was good to see Smith and Carney working together on...
Before leaving for the recently held G20 in Johannesburg, Canada had laid out its priorities, for the summit: “improving critical mineral supply chains, using AI for sustainable development, preventing wildfires and natural disasters, reforming development funding and debt, and advancing gender equality through economic growth.” During a press conference at the summit, however, Prime Minister Carney explained to reporters that...
Analysts are always searching for “turning points”, “tipping points”, and “inflection points”. For me, February 2025 was such a moment. It was the month when the world we thought we understood was turned on its head. As the third anniversary of the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine approached, Ukraine was determined to have another General Assembly debate and a resolution...
There is a negotiation maxim widely heard in trade talks that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. By that measure nothing has been agreed between Ottawa and Alberta. Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith wanted to make a show of signing a memorandum of understanding on energy and the environment, even though all the actual commitments...
Boom. Until this week, among the more reliable constants in Canadian politics were that the federal Liberals would oppose building any new pipelines to the B.C. coast (the Trans Mountain exception proving the rule); that Alberta’s United Conservatives would oppose any extension of carbon pricing (beyond what the province already had in place); and that the two governing parties, so...
Shortly after Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith formally signed their memorandum of understanding on Thursday, Smith joked to reporters in Calgary that she would love for "pipelines to be boring again." It's not clear that pipelines have ever been boring — they have been associated with political tumult in Canada for at least 70 years. And...
Liberal prime ministers aren’t supposed to get standing ovations in Calgary, much less from a room packed full of mostly-Conservative business leaders and provincial cabinet ministers who spent the better part of a decade honing their hatred of the Trudeau government. But Mark Carney, for better or worse — more on that in a moment — is clearly not your...
U.S. President Donald Trump’s monetary-policy monkeyshines are plumbing new depths. Mr. Trump has spent months calling Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell every name in the book, including “clown,” “nincompoop” and “major loser.” Now, his Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, is undermining Mr. Powell by stirring speculation about his possible successor.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith credited former prime minister Justin Trudeau for creating the independence movement in her province, thanks to a litany of nine “bad laws” — and his successor, Mark Carney, for taking the wind out of separatism with “good policy that genuinely addresses the concerns of Albertans.”
Yes, the Canadian health care system is a mess. Though we spend more than all but a handful of developed countries on health care, we achieve middling outcomes, leaving Canada near the bottom of the international rankings in terms of value for money. Example: Though health care now consumes nearly half of provincial own-source revenues, surgery wait times, now 3...
Seldom have we seen such a flurry of activity overseas from a prime minister like we have from Mark Carney over the past few months. His decrease-the-dependence-on-America campaign sees him trying to open trade channels everywhere in a bid to make up for the exports shortfall brought on by Donald Trump’s beggar-thy-neighbour tariff assault.
In a recent conversation with the podcaster John Batchelor, Conrad Black used the adjective “agile” to describe Mark Carney. Central bankers don’t always have to be agile but politicians do. As he closes out his first year in office, we’re going to see — Carney himself is going to see — whether he can master the art of the political...
At weekend UCP convention, activists might not settle for federal accord when what they want is separation. B.C. Energy Minister Adrian Dix purports to see right through Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and her pipeline deal-making with Ottawa. To him, the memorandum of understanding to be inked today by Smith and Prime Minister Mark Carney is really all about her base...
The political temperature in Ottawa appears to be hot. A pipeline that doesn’t even exist and isn’t even close to existing and politicians and insiders in Liberal Ottawa are all over the map on this one. A pipeline Alberta wants, a pipeline Alberta Premier Danielle Smith wants — some in the nation’s capital can’t stomach the thought, including people who...
Big Tech companies have allegedly failed to adequately address child sexual abuse material — and encouraged children younger than 13 to use their platforms, according to court filings in a US lawsuit against Meta, Google, TikTok and Snapchat. The most detailed allegations in the court filings are reserved for Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. Some of the...
Premier Danielle Smith walks a tightrope ahead of UCP AGM. Ahead of this weekend’s United Conservative Party (UCP) AGM, Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to sit down with Premier Danielle Smith to delineate a roadmap to pipelines, energy regulatory reform and carbon capture projects. One would expect genuine progress in these negotiations to take the wind out of separatists’...
'We believe the government of British Columbia has to agree,' says Prime Minister Mark Carney, of a new pipeline to the northwest B.C. coast. Pierre Poilievre was ready. The Conservative leader was ready to rumble. Article content On Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney will be in Calgary. As reported in this column this past Saturday morning, Carney and Premier Danielle...
Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives have earned themselves some positive public relations with the announcement that Steve Outhouse will serve as the next federal election campaign manager for the party. After a few difficult weeks of news for the party, the Outhouse appointment is being heralded as a good thing.
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May is pretty sure that backbench Liberal MPs from British Columbia are really worried. Why? “They’ll lose their seats,” she told reporters. “And they like their seats.” The Ottawa-Alberta memorandum of understanding that has not yet been released − to be signed Thursday by Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith − is that...
OTTAWA -- Canada maintains a low level of civilian oversight of the military due to Parliament's rigid party discipline, according to a new book that compares it with fourteen other democracies.
Federal Energy Minister Tim Hodgson says he has apologized to Coastal First Nations for what he says were a “poor choice of words” regarding a meeting he offered to have with the group on Friday. Hodgson said he would meet with the alliance of nine First Nations, who are opposed to a bitumen pipeline to the northern B.C. coast, in...
Witnessing the ongoing public debate about fighter jets and submarines this fall has felt a lot like watching people argue over baseball, hockey or some other team sport. Naturally, it has been particularly uncompromising online where the characteristics and quirks of each aircraft and boat have been analyzed to the nth degree with the kind of fan worship usually reserved...
Canada’s government is willing to negotiate with more provinces beyond Alberta on lifting clean electricity regulations if they have equivalent policies, Energy Minister Tim Hodgson said. The regulations, created by the former government under Justin Trudeau, took effect this year and are aimed at forcing provinces to create a net zero electricity grid by 2050, with a phased-in approach beginning...
One day after a pipeline plan for Alberta sparked backlash and a Cabinet defection, Canada’s energy minister emphasized the project is far from a done deal. “We’re baking the cake,” Tim Hodgson told POLITICO on Friday from British Columbia. “We’re just buying the ingredients right now. Let’s not opine on how the cake tastes till it’s a little bit further...
Members of the federal Liberal caucus maintained Friday that their party remains united in the wake of Steven Guilbeault's resignation from cabinet — but NDP MPs say they see signs that B.C. Liberal MPs are under political pressure. Guilbeault quit cabinet on Thursday to protest Ottawa's new pipeline pact with Alberta, which leaves open the possibility of overturning the coastal...
If now-backbench Liberal MP Steven Guilbeault was looking for sympathy, he won't find it from four of the five candidates for NDP leader
Analysts at CIBC Capital Markets say they don't expect the private sector to take the lead on a new West Coast oilsands pipeline so long as the British Columbia government and First Nations are opposed. "The requirement to consult with B.C. and Indigenous groups is necessary and logical," they wrote in a report Friday, a day after the Alberta and...
Canada's economy posted surprisingly strong growth in the third quarter, but economists looking underneath the hood offered a series of caveats that suggest weaker results than the headline figures imply. Statistics Canada said Friday that real gross domestic product rose 2.6 per cent on an annualized basis in the third quarter of 2025, marking a rebound from a contraction of...
The federal government has launched a public registry to keep Canadians in the loop on its growing use of artificial intelligence. The registry lists more than 400 areas where AI is currently being explored, developed, implemented or deployed within the government, including early research projects and tools for operations and service delivery. A Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat news release...
Legal action threatened over money mistakenly paid during payroll system's error-plagued rollout in 2016. Federal public servants are being threatened with legal action if they don’t repay money they were overpaid during the error-plagued rollout of the Phoenix pay system nearly a decade ago, Radio-Canada has learned. The government has authorized private debt collection companies to pursue repayment from those...
Ontario's Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli knows he has to hustle to secure job-creating developments with defence industry ties for his province -- now that Ottawa is poised to move quickly on major military purchases. With the navy looking to place a rush order for submarines and the Swedish defence firm Saab dangling the prospect of assembling fighter jets in...
The NDP leadership candidates are conceding they need to brush up on their French language skills as they face off for the campaign's first debate in Montreal. The debate began with a plan to have 60 per cent of the debate take place in French, but most has been in English. Documentarian Avi Lewis and Alberta MP Heather McPherson are...
A new pipeline agreement between Alberta and Ottawa could trigger a race to the bottom on Canada's climate policies, advocates said Thursday, as they warned the deal would invite other provinces to make copycat demands.
Steven Guilbeault has resigned from the prime minister’s cabinet, citing his strong opposition to the federal Liberal government’s major new energy agreement with Alberta, accusing Mark Carney of dismantling of climate plans. The dramatic departure comes just hours after Carney signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) alongside Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, laying the groundwork for strengthened cooperation on major energy...
The president of the Coastal First Nations in British Columbia says the signing of a memorandum of understanding by Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on an proposed oil pipeline to the West Coast "does nothing" to increase the chances it will happen. Marilyn Slett says in a statement that a tanker ban on the north coast...
The head of Canada's steel industry association says there was one disappointment in Prime Minister Mark Carney's otherwise helpful package of measures to boost the domestic market in the face of U.S. tariffs. Carney announced new measures Wednesday to help steel and lumber producers find fresh markets for their goods within Canada. They include tighter quotas on foreign steel entering...
OTTAWA -- Elections Canada says voting services in Nunavik during the spring federal election were "significantly hindered" by a lack of planning and oversight that caused some polls to close early.
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith have signed a memorandum of understanding that commits them to working toward building an oil pipeline to the West Coast — and opens the door to changes to the coastal tanker ban. At a signing ceremony in Calgary on Thursday, the two agreed that Ottawa would enable the export of oil...
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith have signed a major new energy cooperation agreement outlining the emission and other climate conditions that need to be met in order for a new oil pipeline to the Pacific to be approved under the federal major projects law. Signing a new memorandum of understanding (MOU), the federal and provincial governments...
OTTAWA -- Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says Canada is not open to re-establishing diplomatic ties with Iran at this time.
Federal Immigration Minister Lena Diab says she’s unaware of a directive that was reportedly sent to the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa from the Trump administration ordering its envoy to press Canada to lower most immigration levels. Asked if Canada takes advice from the U.S. when setting Canada's immigration levels, Diab said she consulted for months with economists, department officials and...
Anti-corruption police say they are looking into the internal crisis shaking the Quebec Liberal Party. Mathieu Galarneau, a spokesperson for the anti-corruption unit, says investigators are working to validate allegations of wrongdoing before deciding whether to proceed with a formal investigation. The party has been in crisis since Marwah Rizqy, former Liberal leader in the legislature, fired her chief of...
An agreement between Ottawa and Alberta that could clear the path for a new oil pipeline to the Pacific will also require a 75 per cent cut in methane emissions over the next decade, a source tells The Canadian Press. Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to unveil today a memorandum of understanding with Alberta on a possible new oil...
More than three quarters of Canadians disagree with U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra’s assertion that President Donald Trump’s call for Canada to become the 51st state is a compliment and a term of endearment, according to a new poll. Article content Seventy-eight per cent of the Canadians surveyed earlier this month disagree with Hoekstra and “instead believe that such language is...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to unveil an agreement with Alberta Thursday which could clear the way for a new oil pipeline in exchange for stronger environmental regulations, while also walking back some of Ottawa's climate policies. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has said her government has been negotiating with Ottawa a "grand bargain" which would see the proposed Pathways...
Some MPs looking for a ‘retool’ under new campaign chief. After feeling the chance to form government slip through their fingers, many Conservatives are publicly gushing over their party’s choice to lead the next campaign. But the question still hanging in the air is just how much will actually change. Has Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre left behind the counsel of...
Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture and former environment minister Steven Guilbeault will not resign from Mark Carney’s cabinet over the upcoming pipeline agreement between Ottawa and Alberta, according to a senior government source. Guilbeault had been rumoured to be unhappy with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s decision to agree to a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that would outline conditions under...
Members of the legal community are panning Ontario’s attempt to toughen up bail conditions. They say what’s proposed will further disadvantage marginalized individuals and may be unconstitutional. Among the measures included in The Keeping Criminals Behind Bars Act is a requirement for an accused person or their surety to pay upfront for their release by providing “a cash security deposit...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Trump administration announced Friday it is halting all asylum decisions in the wake of the National Guard shooting in Washington, D.C.
ATLANTA (AP) -- The prosecutor who recently took over the Georgia election interference case against President Donald Trump and others said in a court filing Wednesday that he has decided not to pursue the case further.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A health care proposal circulated by the White House in recent days is running into the reality of Republican divisions on the issue -- a familiar struggle for a party that has been trying to scrap or overhaul the Affordable Care Act for the past 15 years.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal judge's dismissal of criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney Letitia James, two political foes of President Donald Trump, won't be the final word on the matter.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Trump administration has halted all asylum decisions and paused issuing visas for people traveling on Afghan passports days after a shooting near the White House that left one National Guard member dead and another in critical condition.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Charges against the man accused of shooting two National Guard members have been upgraded to first-degree murder after one of the soldiers died, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia announced Friday, while investigators continue to seek a motive and the U.S. government announced a halt to all asylum decisions.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Charges against the man accused of shooting two National Guard members have been upgraded to first-degree murder after one of the soldiers died, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia announced Friday.
President Donald Trump says he wants to "permanently pause migration" from poorer nations and is promising to seek to expel millions of immigrants from the United States by revoking their legal status. He is blaming immigrants for problems from crime to housing shortages as part of "social dysfunction" in America and demanding "REVERSE MIGRATION."
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump said Wednesday's "heinous assault" on two National Guard members near the White House proves that lax migration policies are "the single greatest national security threat facing our nation."
Canadians rarely stop to think that everything they own, from their homes and savings to their farms, vehicles, and small businesses, exist only so long as government allows it. A single regulation, order, or policy change can erase a lifetime of work, uproot families, and disrupt lives. Indeed, across Canada, property owners have watched livelihoods disappear overnight through land-use restrictions...
When Canada legalized cannabis in 2018, it launched a national experiment in health, safety, and economic policy. Seven years later, the results are clear enough to measure and complex enough to debate. Cannabis has moved from the margins of public life and to the mainstream of the Canadian economy. Yet much of the federal framework that governs it remains frozen...
The COP30 Global Climate Summit in Belém, Brazil marked the 10th anniversary of the landmark Paris Accord, where countries agreed to limit global warming to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels by 2050. The world is now anticipated to heat up by 2.6 C above preindustrial levels by the end of the century.
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
I went back to Ottawa this week. It’s been a while since I’ve been in the nation’s capital to talk about peace issues, so when the Senate of Canada contacted me, I had to go. Prime Minister Carney’s Budget 2025 is making its way through Parliament, and the Senate’s Committee on National Security, Defence and Veterans Affairs asked me and...
Pierre Poilievre’s recent video attacking Mark Carney could have been a strong argument. If not for the air quotes. When he says Carney promised he could “handle Trump” and “negotiate a win,” his fingers twitch into the familiar inverted-comma gesture. It’s a tiny move, but it says everything. Air quotes don’t persuade; they perform. They turn conviction into commentary and...
As Prime Minister Mark Carney said, “Donald Trump wants to break us so America can own us.” But what if Trump decides to use military power along with economic tariffs? An Arctic expert writing in The Globe and Mail says we shouldn’t think of tanks or helicopters streaming over the border. Instead, an American show-of-force could begin with a single...
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith signed an agreement this week paving a path for an oil pipeline — a move that ended up costing Carney a cabinet minister and key ally in Quebec. Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc joins The House to discuss Steven Guilbeault’s resignation and how Canada plans to address the frustrated B.C. government...
Peter Mazereeuw speaks with comedian Mark Critch about Donald Trump, comedy in dark times, Canadian culture, and his new book, Sorry, not sorry: An unapologetic look at what makes Canada worth fighting for.
The federal government signed a memorandum of understanding with Alberta yesterday, pledging support to build a new pipeline and make changes to environmental regulations. Prime Minister Mark Carney celebrated a "big day" for Alberta and Canada, but opposition to the deal was vast, including from environmental groups, B.C's Premier, Coastal First Nations, and even within the Liberal Caucus. After the...
At Issue this week: Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith forge a partnership for a new pipeline out of Alberta, but it quickly sparked a resignation and pushback from B.C. And, more support from the federal government to help industries being battered by U.S. tariffs.
